Kor'sia has already taken the path of revisiting classics through other pieces of his own, such as Somiglianza that revisited the Afternoon of the Faun or Jeux, which is the title that Nijinski conferred on one of his ballets in 1913 and it was a collaboration with the defunct company Víctor Ullate in Madrid (Spain).

    

With this particular vision that takes up pieces from the past and tries to connect them and place them in the present, we are trying to build a possible imaginary that perfectly concentrates on an idea of ​​the philosopher Paul Valery that we like to constantly repeat ourselves:

"There are no finished poems, there are only abandoned poems."

 

So it seems that during this time of investigation we have been looking for those “abandoned poems”, trying to rescue them and include them within contemporary dance, but also to relocate them within the contemporaneity of the 21st century.

 

Our fascination for these pieces, where we can also connect to this Giselle, starts from the understanding of humanity as a device that shares a collective imagination, a series of shared discourses or narratives, which in our opinion make us up as a community and as humanity. In how those pieces that we call academic, invariably preserved in time, we can find answers or ways of life, lessons, allegories, solutions to our current problems.

 

In this “revisit” formula of contemporary dance research and creation, we could have adopted many ways of doing it, there have already been other creators who have chosen this path for some of their works, and there are certainly different ways to exercise it. 

 

With Giselle, unlike other of our pieces based on this idea of ​​the return visit, we have varied the creative process. In fact, it is especially necessary to point out that our Giselle does not refer to the complete piece, to the libretto of the original piece, as we might think at first, but to be based on the same character of ‘she’. She as a woman, as an individual, as a response, as an act. Giselle is therefore the epicenter of the action, how she responds and reacts to what is happen to her… and not the ‘story’, or the narrative of the ballet.

 

For us, the action of the "act of Giselle" focuses on the idea of ​​the capacity of love as the original source of possible solutions to the pain that has settled in our societies, on the idea of ​​love as a cure and healing.

 

So there is no construction in our piece that focuses on the love / betrayal conflict, as in the original, but in this case we focus on Giselle, as a concept of "love in spite of everything", that is why it had to "be her", since none of the other characters in the other romantic ballets talk about it with the tear and the daring as Giselle does.

 

If we take Giselle to the streets, to those of the XXI century, she is that woman who launches herself with courage, commitment and truthfulness to love despite everything. Unfortunately we don't find many Giselle on our streets in our day to day life. And is it possible to access pure love today?

 

We can say that even from the scientific nuclei there are different visions; On the one hand, medicine has recognized broken heart syndrome as a true clinical pathology; while on the contrary it is undeniable that the technological imprint is introducing new ways and means of loving / unloving.

 

In fact, the Giselle of 1833 seems to be part of an understanding of the world, which is disappeared or about to disappear; dragging with her the dimension governed by Myrtha in which the Willis live, the young women who, like Giselle, died for love. But paradoxically it also seems that this unreal, spectral underworld currently metaphorizes the liquidity of human relationships in which we are immersed through the screens that surround our lives, and that allude to the new forms of love / lack of love to which we face today.

 

The new technological devices have multiplied the speed of relationships, as well as that of possible and multiple frustrations; configuring the failure of love as a current theme.

 

Individuals react to this new technological sphere, to this potential disorder, with other tools that lean on and seek "answers" in meditation, yoga, also in dance ... asking our body for new resources to help us sustain what installs us in this new spectral / virtual speed; although like Giselle. And we believe or want to believe.. that this is still invariable, we are always guided by a single desire: to love and be loved.

 

Text: Agnès López-Río

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GISELLE is new production of KOR’SIA
In coproducion with Teatros del Canal Madrid, The Staatstheater Darmstadt Germany, “Festival Bolzano Danza | Tanz Bozen”

Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport //Government of Spain,Community of Madrid, Madrid City Council, Italian Institute of Culture, Madrid.

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Idea and direction: Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa
Choreography: Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa in collaboration with the performers
Performers: Mattia Russo, Antonio de Rosa, Agnès López-Río, Giulia Russo, Astrid Bramming, Alejandro Moya, Christian Pace, Angela Demattè, Claudia Bosch, Gonzalo Álvarez and Jerónimo Ruiz
Dramaturgy: Gaia Clotilde Chernetich and Kor’sia
Dramaturgy assistant: Giuseppe Dagostino
Artistic advice: Agnès López-Río
Set designer: Amber Vandenhoeck and Kor’sia
Voice: Patricia Rezai
Repeater: Marina Jiménez Blasco
Music: Adolphe Adam and PERMANENT DESTRUCTION / Naomi Velissariou & Joost Maaskant

Musical composition: Susana Hernández Pulido
Lights: Marc Salicrú
Costume idea and design: Adrian Bernal
Realization and textile design: Amedeo Piccione
Makeup: Vicent Guijarro
Hairdresser: Elías Pedrosa for Oculto Hair Club
Scene realization: Mambo Decorados + Sfumato
Stage props: Scnick Móvil
Poster photo: Ernesto Artillo
Collaborating photographers: Paul Rodríguez, Pablo Zamora, María Alperi
Promotional video: Alejandro Garrido / Jorge Cantos
Production: Gabriel Blanco and Paola Villegas (Spectare)
Technical Director: Meritxell Cabanas